A 23-year-old Florida International University student has landed in legal custody after what she claims was a poorly judged joke sparked widespread panic and triggered a swift law enforcement response. Gabriela Saldana was taken into police custody on April 16 following reports from multiple members of a 215-person WhatsApp group, where she had shared messages referencing potential explosive threats at a campus venue, according to MSN reporting.
The troubling messages were shared during a group discussion about an upcoming event scheduled to take place on April 10 at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center, the university’s major indoor event facility. Beyond the venue reference, Saldana’s messages included a mention of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as controversial political imagery tied to the university’s Capstone program. Law enforcement officials interpreted the term “bonbons,” used in one of Saldana’s messages, as coded language referring to bombs, alongside other suggestive phrasing included in her posts.
Alarmed by the threatening content, multiple group members rushed to contact local law enforcement to report the messages, leading directly to Saldana’s arrest later that month. During her initial bond court hearing held the same day of her arrest, Saldana defended her actions, telling the court the entire incident was nothing more than a “dumb joke,” local Miami outlet WSVN-TV confirmed.
Presiding bond court judge Mindy S. Glazer acknowledged Saldana’s statement that the exchange was intended as humor, but pushed back on the claim in court remarks. “To an objective person it is not a joke,” Glazer stated, noting that threatening language tied to potential violent harm creates legitimate public fear regardless of the sender’s intent. As of the latest reporting, no further updates on Saldana’s upcoming court proceedings or potential charges have been publicly released.